Millennium Promise Competition

Together We Can Undo The Knots

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“Together We Can Undo the Knots”
The concept behind my idea for this campaign sprang from the language used to describe the objectives of the Millennium Promise competition. “To compel and empower.”
Often when calling for action on social issues, such as the eradication of extreme poverty, designers pull from images that represent the horror of the impoverished conditions that exist every day in Africa. The public gets bombarded with pictures of malnutrition, disease, and destruction accompanied by a plea for support. Through time we become so accustomed to these facsimiles that they no longer resonate with us. They provoke the same emotion in us as the poor or homeless on the street, we feel guilt, but if we walk away we forget, left only with the impression that it is awful, but there is not much that can be done to help.
The challenge then is to surprise and inspire, leaving the feeling that a brighter future is on its way, that with support the Millennium Development Goals can be met and extreme poverty can be eradiated in Africa in 2015.
My design proposal for the campaign is based on the call for people to work together to overcome conditions of poverty. This is conveyed by the image of a rope hung as a means of climbing out of conditions of poverty. Each knot on the rope represents an obstacle, which can be untied with the publics support.
On the left side of the poster a rope represents Africa in 2008. The rope is tied with eight knots; next to each knot is a Millennium Development Goal. In the center of the poster is a rope representing Africa in 2015. The rope has been straightened demonstrating that the knots have been removed by the target deadline. On the far right side I have the slogan “together we can undo the knots” accompanied by the organization name and promise.
The poster is a jump off point for other potential media applications. The symbolic knotted and untied rope can be carried through out the campaign and used as a referential icon of the goals being met in 2015.
I hope you consider my submission as I feel strongly that the appropriate message is conveyed, as well it is a personal goal to contribute to the process of eradicating poverty conditions in our world.